Page 118 of Devoured

I took a deep breath and pictured myself at the Gryphon Club, a final club at Harvard. Mason and I had been accepted freshman year, but we got to live in the mansion sophomore year. The two of us always had fun.

But it was always better when it was all four of us. Me, Mason, Rob, and Matt. I remembered a weekend where Matt and Rob were visiting. They were two years younger than Mason and me and they were seniors at Empire High at the time. We’d wanted to give them a taste of how fun college was.

“Did you choose a memory?” Dr. Clark asked.

“Yeah, one of the best nights.”

“Tell me all about it.”

I closed my eyes tighter as the memory came back…

Chapter 29

Friday

A million years ago, according to Dr. Clark

“Why would you choose to live in an all-boys dorm?” Rob asked as he tossed his duffel bag on my bed.

“It’s not a dorm,” Mason said. “It’s a final club. And it’s fucking awesome. We throw the best parties on campus.”

“Is it even technically on campus?” asked Rob. “It was like a five-minute drive. At least, that’s how long the driveway made it seem.” He collapsed onto the leather Chesterfield sofa and frowned. “And why is your room decorated like we just walked into the Caldwell’s mansion?”

Matt laughed. “This place does remind me a bit of home.” He tapped the wood paneling with his knuckles and stared at the built-in bookshelves. “Minus the fact that you have gryphons outside your creepy mansion instead of gargoyles.”

“And the fact that it’s filled with only men,” Rob added.

“Would you stop being annoying for five seconds?” Mason said. “You’re lucky you’re even here. It’s very exclusive.”

“Not that exclusive if they took your ass.”

Mason smacked Rob in the back of the head.

I ignored them and walked over to Matt. He turned away from me and looked out the window. He looked worse than the last time I’d seen him. There were dark circles under his eyes. And I’d heard that the Empire High Eagles had lost their last three games. Rumor had it that their leading wide receiver had been benched because he’d shown up drunk to practice too many times. Matt was their drunk wide receiver.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

He cleared his throat. “Ready to fuck some shit up,” he said.

Was he though? Because he looked a mess.

“Speaking of fucking shit up, we brought some delicious homemade brownies,” Rob said and pulled out a plate of brownies. There were already several missing.

How did brownies have anything to do with fucking shit up? But I was hungry. I grabbed one and took a bite. I wasn’t sure who they were homemade by, but they were actually pretty tasty.

Mason grabbed one too. Rob pulled out two and tossed one at Matt.

I had no right to judge Matt. I’d showed up drunk to high school plenty of times. Or high. I was actually high right now. But I also didn’t have a whole team depending on me. I was just fucking up my own life. So yeah, I wasn’t judging. But I was worried about him. I just wanted one weekend where we could just be…us again. The four of us against the world. The way it used to be. Before everything broke.

Matt turned away from me. “So what’s the plan for tonight?” he asked Mason. “Because I need a drink.”

Matt did not need a drink. Neither did I. But it was Friday. And I was a little worried that half the time I looked as sad as Matt did. My girlfriend had suddenly stopped talking to me several weeks ago. I’d tried to call her and her number was disconnected. I would have been worried about her, but I knew she was fine. She just didn’t want to talk to me. Because even though she’d changed her Facebook account to private, she seemed eager enough to accept a friend request from a new fake account I made that didn’t show my face. It wasn’t even a good fake account. I had like one friend and one picture.

So that was done. And honestly, maybe I wasn’t that sad. Because the more time that passed, the more I realized I didn’t miss her. Back in high school we made sense. When I first met her, I liked that she wasn’t part of my world. But she made it pretty clear that all she wanted was to be a part of it. The more time we spent together, the less I liked her. But I found that was the case with most people. Except for my three friends in this room.

“Well, like I was just telling this idiot,” Mason said and pointed to Rob. “The Gryphon Club throws the best parties on campus.”

“But if it’s a secret club, how do you throw parties?” Rob asked. “Because whoever you invite will know about said secret club. Meaning it’s not a secret anymore.”

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